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What seems to matter in public policy and the health of informal caregivers? A cross-sectional study in 12 European countries

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  • Laia Calvó-Perxas
  • Joan Vilalta-Franch
  • Howard Litwin
  • Oriol Turró-Garriga
  • Pedro Mira
  • Josep Garre-Olmo

Abstract

In Europe, informal caregiving is frequent and is expected to grow. Caregiving has an impact on caregivers’ health, but its effect may vary according to the policies of support that are available to caregivers. The aim of this study was to assess the association between the policies of support to caregivers available in 12 European countries and the health of caregivers, considering separately the policies based on financial help and those based on training and other non- financial services. We used data from 13,507 caregivers from 12 European countries from the fifth wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to build a path model. Poor health among caregivers was associated with living in a family-based care country (β = 0.50; 95% CI = 0.42–0.59), and with an increased extent of caregiving (β = 0.18; 95% CI = 0.15–0.22). Non-financial support measures seem to have a larger protective impact (β = –0.33; 95% CI = –0.38 - –0.28) on the health of caregivers than do financial support measures (β = 0.03; 95% CI = 0.01–0.04), regardless of the gender of the caregiver. According to our results, the currently available policies of support associated with better health among caregivers are those that: 1) provide them with some free time, 2) help them to deal emotionally with caregiving, and 3) give them skills to both improve the care situation and to deal with it better.

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  • Laia Calvó-Perxas & Joan Vilalta-Franch & Howard Litwin & Oriol Turró-Garriga & Pedro Mira & Josep Garre-Olmo, 2018. "What seems to matter in public policy and the health of informal caregivers? A cross-sectional study in 12 European countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(3), pages 1-12, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0194232
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194232
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Sandrine Juin, 2019. "Formal home care, informal support and caregiver health: should other people care?," Erudite Working Paper 2019-21, Erudite.
    2. Calvó-Perxas, Laia & Vilalta-Franch, Joan & Litwin, Howard & Mira, Pedro & Garre-Olmo, Josep, 2021. "A longitudinal study on public policy and the health of in-house caregivers in Europe," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(4), pages 436-441.
    3. Costa-Font, Joan & Vilaplana-Prieto, Cristina, 2022. "Mental health effects of caregivers respite: Subsidies or Supports?," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    4. Margarita Pérez-Cruz & Laura Parra-Anguita & Catalina López-Martínez & Sara Moreno-Cámara & Rafael del-Pino-Casado, 2019. "Coping and Anxiety in Caregivers of Dependent Older Adult Relatives," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-10, May.
    5. Longobardo, Luz María Peña & Rodríguez-Sánchez, Beatriz & Oliva, Juan, 2023. "Does becoming an informal caregiver make your health worse? A longitudinal analysis across Europe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    6. Klara Raiber & Ellen Verbakel & Alice Boer, 2022. "Testing the informal care model: intrapersonal change in care provision intensity during the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1287-1300, December.

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